Berlin or bust...

runrabbit

Emer911 wrote: »

Yip. Signed up for it in a fit of madness at the weekend.

Ah brilliant - you'll really enjoy the hometown experience I reckon! Will be looking forward to reading about your progress - the pace is looking great these days!

Emer911

Friday - rest day

Saturday
5 miles around the local park. Was out with some of the girls from work last night, so the 3 glasses of wine were definitely telling (I'm such a wuss!). But it was nice to blow the cobwebs away...
I ran down to the beach, thinking I'd run along the coast for a bit, but the tide was in and the waves were WILD! Had to stop and just take it all in. Lovely.
So ran along the road instead and back towards the park for a couple of leisurely loops. A nice (slow) run. Nothing too hectic.

Summary 5.25 mi in 48:46
Avg Pace: 9:18 min/mi

Emer911

Sunday
Tummy was a bit iffey this morning and I was a bit nervous of travelling too far from the toilet home :rolleyes: so stuck to the park. The aim was to do at least 6.75 to take me over 20 miles for the week (only 20 :eek:) but I have to admit I was not feeling too confident...

First mile the legs felt totally leaden, but the tummy seemed to be behaving itself. So I left the safety of the top park and headed over the bridge to the fields beyond. Looping and lapping around the grassy trails was a nice way to tick off the miles. I didn't have any tummy troubles at all (thankfully) but the legs just felt heavy all the way around. Ah well.

Kept it going to 7.25 so got the magic 20+ done. I know it doesn't sound like much, but it's a step in the right direction. The aim is to increase the weekly total slowly and consistently until the Marathon training proper kicks in.

Summary 7.25 mi in 1:08:29
Avg Pace: 9:27 min/mi

Emer911

Monday
Lunchtime Pilates. There were some beginners in the class so she had the rest of us work on the balance beam foam roller Lovely!

Tuesday
4 late miles in the park. Had to help out at the kids running club, so didn't get to go out until after 8:30. Late, but still bright. Got a nice run in the park. Nothing hectic, but glad I didn't cop out and just go eat dinner :rolleyes:

Summary 4.00 mi 36:52
Avg Pace: 9:12 min/mi

Emer911

Wednesday
3x0.25 hills.
Hot and humid and sunny this evening. Looked lovely out but it was not easy running weather. I was melting after the first hill rep and positively purple by the time I got back to the car!

Reps were hard. The hill isn't all that big but big enough to hurt :rolleyes: The pace doesn't look fast (who am I kidding, it wasn't fast :eek:) but I was really pushing to hold it towards the top of the hill.
Rep | Duration | Pace /mi
1| 131.1 | 8:45
2| 130.4 | 8:42
3| 130.4 | 8:42

Summary 4 mi in 37:57
Avg Pace: 9:29 min/mi

Emer911

Thursday
Another hot one. 4 miles in the parks with the sun shining beating down . I even broke out the sunscreen! Hot hot hot. Meltin' I was (again:rolleyes:)

So a few more miles done, if a bit slow.

Off to a wedding tomorrow so I'm making no commitments on the running this weekend Have to find the time to fit in a few miles though to get to my +20 for the week

Summary 4.00 mi 36:35
Avg Pace: 9:08 min/mi

Emer911

Friday - Sunday Wedding celebrations and shooting the breeze... no running, but great fun weekend.

Monday
Lunchtime pilates class with the stand in instructor, so not the usual masochism. Even though the class felt easy, I'm still feeling it today :rolleyes:

Tuesday
Headed to greystones as usual with mini-me to drop her to the running club and only realised I forgot the garmin as I pulled into the car park - doh!
So I ran out to the beach/ harbour and back. Its about a 4.5 mile round trip. Decided to do a controlled Fartlek: 3 sets of 3 x 30:20:10 with 2 minutes between the sets (so that's 30 seconds easy, 20 seconds steady, 10 seconds fast)
As I had no watch, I was just counting in my head so I guess it was all a bit approximate... Good fun though.

Emer911

Wednesday
4 miles - got to do this in the local park and though it was a nice run it felt harder than it should have. Just one of those days I guess...

Summary 4.10 mi 36:41
Avg Pace: 8:57 min/mi

Emer911

Thursday
Short run with some more of the 30:20:10 fartlek runs.
Did 4 sets today. Tough, but fun. Very warm and humid out there though. I was sweltering after the first set, but it didn't get any better... :rolleyes:

Summary 3.21 miles in about 30 minutes

Emer911

Friday
Rest day.

Saturday
5 miles on a humid and overcast afternoon. It was lovely this morning - sun splitting the stones, but I had some stuff to do so didn't get organised to go out running until 1pm and the sun had gone behind the clouds... Ah well. :rolleyes:

Threw in some fartleks again. 4 sets of 3x30:20:10 - just to get the legs going Felt good, but man, were my lungs working hard

On the cool down lap I stopped to walk and have a chat with an older gent that I met after Chicago last year. He used to run marathons, but has dodgy knee/hip (can't remember exactly) and walks them now. He's some man - did Edinburgh last week and is off to Cork this weekend. Had a chat with him for about 0.5 mile before we parted company and I jogged back home.

BBQ and wine for the evening... now where did that sun go :cool:

Summary 5.00 mi in 48:39
Avg Pace: 9:43 min/mi

Emer911

Sunday
Where DID that sun go? :mad:
Foggy and rainy driving home last night and it was wet-wet-wet when we got up this morning. Temperature has dropped to about 14c or so, and with the wind and rain it was not enticing me to get the gear on. By the time I'd stopped procrastinating it was afternoon and hours since I had my porridge, so I decided to play it safe and had a half bag of sports jellies before heading out. Jacket and long tights on (it's supposed to be summer, right?) I headed out the door but still wasn't set on a route. Found myself heading towards Bray, so decided to keep going and head out along the cliff walk for a bit.
The weather was WILD. When I got to the sea front, the red flags were out in numbers (no swimming) but only a complete nutter would have dared head out into that! :eek: The waves were terrifying in their intensity. Never saw it that insane before but sensationally beautiful displaying the raw power of nature. Wow!

And the running? Well, needless to say, the wind was a challenge! Thankfully it was mostly side on, so it was manageable. Found it tough along by the open sea-front, but when sheltered it was grand. More or less had the place to myself too, which is unusual for that time of the day, but not unusual given the weather, I suppose. When I got back to the relative shelter of the park I had just one mile to go, and was feeling surprisingly okay. Finished the 9 miles strongly, so all in all it was good run.

Summary 9.00 mi 1:26:29
Avg Pace: 9:37 min/mi

Emer911

Monday
Helping out in Donneybrook with the WMM for a few hours. Great celebration and fantastic to see Lynda Byrne going so well - not to mention the powerhouse performance of MarthaStew!
AND it didn't rain either. Super

Tuesday
Back to grey skies and rain for the run today. But hey - June in Ireland, what else is to be expected :rolleyes: Plan was for 3 but I'm not really paying too much attention to the plan at the moment, so I did a warmup, 4 sets of the 3x30:20:10 with 2 min recovery and a final cooldown to take me to 4.1 mi for the day. Miserable evening to be running, but at least the fartlek/intervals keep me interested...

These structured fartleks are being thrown in to see if they can help me with basic speed. I'm never too good on speed, so this is just a little shake up for a couple of weeks before the main phase of the Marathon training kicks off.

Summary 4.10 mi 37:21
Avg Pace: 9:07 min/mi

Emer911

Wednesday
Supervising at the Gym for 2 hours after work, then home to put dinner on before rushing out to collect yerwan from a party. Then back home to finish dinner. In NO mood to run after that.

Thursday
4x800mt intervals at 5k pace. The watch was set up to run these at 8min/mi pace, but as I've recently run a 50:09 10K I guess I should really re-evaluate my 5k pace? McMillan says the equivalent 5k pace for that 10k time is 7:46/mi...

Anyway. It was a bit rainy but mostly just drizzly when I headed out. After the warmup I was heading to the grass to do the intervals, but it was totally waterlogged and, in runners, it was a slippery nightmare, so I trotted back to the tarmac path. The intervals felt ok, but probably tougher than they should. It funny that I did a full 6 miles at about that pace a few weeks ago. :rolleyes: I guess race conditions have a lot to account for?

1:40 between intervals and 1 mile either side

Interval| Duration | Pace /mi
1| 239.1 |7:59
2| 240.4 |8:01
3| 239.5 |7:59
4| 239.3 |7:59


Nice and even, but I was SO happy when the beep went on the watch after the last interval!

Summary 4.46 mi in 41:29
Avg Pace: 9:19 min/mi

Emer911

Friday
"Do nothing but watch TV" day.

Saturday
5 miles at pmp. Went out WAY too fast so had to pull it back a bit, and eventually settled comfortably into the run. Headed to the park, intending to run on the grass, but it was still really slippery and soggy/sloppy so I stuck to the paths instead.
Loads of walkers out this morning and everyone seemed to have a dog with them. But only one of them tried to trip me up, so I guess I can't complain too much :rolleyes:
All in all, a decent run, kept to pace and didn't find it too tough, even pushed it a bit faster for the last mile. Happy enough with it.

Summary 5.00 mi in 44:19
Avg Pace: 8:51 min/mi

Emer911

Sunday 10th June
Headed west and was out last night (school reunion - I won't say which year... scary number!:eek:) so a few drinks were had. Plenty of fluids this morning to rehydrate and prehydrate before heading out into the beautiful, if totally unexpected, 20C and bright sunshine. After all the rain and wind we've had recently it was a welcome sight and even though I don't usually enjoy running in the heat, I didn't mind one bit today!
My sis pointed me in the direction of a "nice" route, but said it was just a 6k loop so I decided to head in that direction and keep going. Hadn't really (ever) been on those roads before so it was a bit of exploration. Good running, and it was easy to keep the pace at LSR pace in the sunshine and heat.
Even with all my diversions up and down dead end boreens, I had just got to 8 miles by the time I ended back at the house, so after a brief loo stop and a swig of cool water I went and finished the last mile by doing laps of the block.

Happy with this. Pace was just about spot on what I wanted, and I felt grand throughout, despite the heat.

Just over 22.5 mi for the stepback week. Not fantastic, I know, but I'm getting there :rolleyes:

Summary 9.10 mi 1:28:10
Avg Pace: 9:41 min/mi

claralara

Nice pmp run on Saturday - you're by-passing the 4 hour mark then I see...

Nules10

Nice running there Emer. have to say i agree with you re the heat... mostly hate running in it but enjoying it after all the rain.

Emer911

claralara wrote: »

Nice pmp run on Saturday - you're by-passing the 4 hour mark then I see...

Thanks CL. Don't think I'll take that as an indicator just yet. 4hr is just about 9min/mi pace, so the pace run wasn't exactly miles ahead of that. Still, felling good and if the training goes well (and no injuries PG) it should be an achievable goal (hope I'm not tempting fate?:rolleyes:).
Long way to go to October though - anything can happen!

Nules10 wrote: »

Nice running there Emer. have to say i agree with you re the heat... mostly hate running in it but enjoying it after all the rain.

Yeah Nules, after the catastrophy of Thursday and Friday's weather, any bit of sun was welcome Even for a pasty white, freckle faced, red-head like me.

Emer911

Monday
Lunchtime Plates. Seems like it's been ages. Body felt that way too. Ouch:eek:

Tuesday
4.5 mile run in the park. Nothing much to say about this one. Surprised at the number of runners out though.

Summary 4.50 mi in 42:02
Avg Pace: 9:20 min/mi

Wednesday
ecoli's wonderful imagination came up with a couple of sessions to prepare for the Dunshaughlin 10k next week. Today was 3x15 mins at 10k pace with 5 minutes recovery. As my mileage isn't quite up to his just yet, I reduced the time to 12 minutes per rep. Tough session... I though the last 2 minutes would never end. :eek: I kept moving for the recovery minutes, but the 2nd and 3rd were more walking then jogging Done now anyway.
My left hip was a bit iffey when I finished, which is a bit of a worry. I did a bit of foam rolling when I got home, but I'll keep an eye on it for the next few days. Might need to go get it pummelled
So with warmup and cool down it was a total of just over 7 miles for the session.

Summary 7.02 mi 1:06:15
Avg Pace: 9:26 min/mi

Nules10

Did that session myself today emer. It was a tough as anything but I felt a great sense of accomplishment after it.

Emer911

Nules10 wrote: »

Did that session myself today emer. It was a tough as anything but I felt a great sense of accomplishment after it.

Good for you.
I just felt pooped

Nules10

I am totally pooped now

Younganne

Hey ladies, im envious of you both..i would love to give that session a go, but i've missed the boat now and can't do it!!! Am i mad, sick, insane or what!"!!:o

Emer911

Younganne wrote: »

Hey ladies, im envious of you both..i would love to give that session a go, but i've missed the boat now and can't do it!!! Am i mad, sick, insane or what!"!!:o

Yes, yes and yes

Nules10

You are all of the Anne as we all are

Younganne

Emer911 wrote: »

Yes, yes and yes

Nules10 wrote: »

You are all of the Anne as we all are

mmmmm thought so!!!!

Emer looking forward to meeting you next week...but you got that session done today so no bother on the sub 50 for you!!!!:D

Emer911

Younganne wrote: »

mmmmm thought so!!!!

Emer looking forward to meeting you next week...but you got that session done today so no bother on the sub 50 for you!!!!:D

Yeah, it'll be nice to meet everyone... put faces to the last few names

Emer911

Ohh, I've been neglectful of my log. It's been a busy few days, but I have been out running...

Thursday
Supposed to do 4miles but life conspired against me (and the weather was shocking!) so I decided to swap the rest day.

Friday
Thursdays 4 miles.
I was heading into Taste of Dublin straight after work, and I just DON'T DO mornings, so brought my gear and headed out into the lashings of rain during my lunch break (amen't I a trouper :rolleyes:) Though it was raining, it wasn't cold at all, so it was actually very pleasant running weather. Got back and jumped into the shower but only realised after that there was nowhere to plug in my hair dryer, so spent the afternoon at the desk with a wet head . I knew there was a reason I didn't like running at lunchtime :mad:
Anyway... Taste was great fun.

Summary 4.00 mi in 38:09
Avg Pace: 9:32 min/mi

Saturday
Another ecoli session on the cards in preparation for the Dunshaughlin 10k next week. Fartlek - 1 mile warm up, 8x2 min on(@5k pace), 2 min off, 1 mile cooldown. My 5k pace should be about 7:45/mi, so I set the watch to keep me between 7:50 and 7:30 - for a bit of leeway. Headed to the park for this, intended running on the grass, but after the torrential rain over the last few days the place was totally waterlogged. So not the best surface on which to run fast. The pathway it was then . Ah well.
The run actually went ok. Struggled to settle into the pace for the first one, and went a bit slower than pace on the third one , but other than that they were all more or less on pace or slightly faster.

#|Duration|Distance (mi)| Pace mim/mi
1| 2:00.0| 0.25| 7:59
2| 2:00.0| 0.26 |7:35
3| 2:00.0| 0.26| 7:50
4| 2:00.0| 0.27| 7:27
5| 2:00.0| 0.27| 7:33
6| 2:00.0| 0.26| 7:43
7| 2:00.0| 0.26| 7:47
8| 2:00.0| 0.27| 7:30

A good session. Felt OK throughout, but was definitely panting hard at the end of each set. Really needed those 2 minutes recovery!

Summary 5.26 mi 51:49
Avg Pace: 9:51 min/mi

Sunday
90 min LSR. Did 2 miles in the park with company (her on her new rollerblades) so a bit slow to start. Dropped her back and off again to tackle the lovely Quarry Road hill - so an even slower 3rd mile:D. Loved it though. Fantastic views out across the bay from top. Could see from the Sugarloaf, to Bray head, across the bay to Killiney hill, Dunlaoghaire harbour, all the way to the Chimneys at Poolbeg and Howth Head in the distance. Fabulous and a real lift after getting (shlepping) to the top of the hill!
And of course, once you get to the top, it's a lovely downhill for most of the way home.;) Slow average pace, but mi 3 was actually 12:50 (:eek: that's a big hill) so happy with the overall run.

Hip is still feeling a bit niggly, but nothing too worrying. Foam roller and stretches this week, me-thinks. If it's still off later in the week I'll make a appointment to get pummelled beaten up a sports massage.

Summary 9.10 mi 1:31:10
Avg Pace: 10:01 min/mi

shazkea

Good running lately Emer; hope the hip is minor and the massage sorts it.

Emer911

Monday
Lunchtime pilates class. Lots of arm and glutes work and boy was that painful! Though my ass was gonna fall off :eek: